Music for desert picnics. Tuareg guitarist Mdou Moctar delves into his more sensitive side with a minimal studio recording ofdreamy ballads. Thumping calabash, droning guitars, and vocal overdubs evoke an imagined desert soundscape. All instrumentsand vocals performed by Mdou only, creating very personal and auteur sessions. Emotive and introspective, exploringthemes of religion, spirituality, and matters of the heart. Songs that are difficult to place, lifted out of half remembered memoryfor one last time.Mdou Moctar (né Mahamadou Souleymane) hails from the town of Tchintabaraden, Niger, a tiny village on the edge of the Sahara.Playing in the style of Tuareg guitar made popular in the West by Tinariwen and Bombino, Mdou is one of the few originalsinger/songwriters willing to experiment and push the boundaries of the genre at home and abroad.After his underground success on the pirate mp3 networks of West Africa with his first release, the psychedelic autotuned“Anar,” (2008) he was featured on the Sahel Sounds compilation “Music from Saharan Cellphones” (2011) and launched asuccessful touring career. In 2012, Mdou relocated from his village to Agadez, the center of Niger’s guitar scene, and formedhis band. Over the past years, he has become well known on the international circuit, playing high energy electrified music infestivals and clubs across Europe and North America. In 2013, he released his first international album, “Afelan,” rocking andraw sessions recorded live in Niger. In 2015, he starred in the first ever Tuareg language film, “Rain the Color Blue with a LittleRed In It,” a Nigerien remake of “Purple Rain.”In the past years, Tuareg rock music, particularly that of Niger, has gotten faster. There is a preference for this new sound - bothin the raucous weddings of Agadez and in Berlin rock clubs. The wavering guitar solos, rapid fire drums and heavy distortionhas become characteristic of the contemporary sound. For Mdou, this was not always the case. Self taught in a religious regionthat eschewed the guitar, Mdou was forced to learn music in secret. And when he did begin to play, there were no weddings orfestivities. His early oeuvre was developed to play at informal private sessions with his friends. In these “takits” or picnics, Mdouand his friends would pass the lazy days together sitting under a tree, drinking tea, laughing, and singing songs.